A thought provoking question at that-   According to Thomas Friedman’s New York Times Op-Ed piece in the December 27, 2009 New York Times, the 2000′s were “The Big Zero.” Not very encouraging for a recent college graduate
The story of the year was a weak economy that could have been much, much weaker. How the mild-mannered man who runs the Federal Reserve prevented an economic catastrophe? Time magazines man of the year 2009:  Ben Bernanke

When viewing the decade form a more  political standpoint, Time magazine, who preferred the label “Decade from Hell,” perhaps painted a somewhat bitter, but better picture by  Highlighting events such as, the most divisive and confusing presidential election in history, a discombobulated drama that we once thought could occur only in the Third World.Then came the defining moment of the decade, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which redefined global politics for at least a generation and caused us to question the continental security we had until then rarely worried about. We waged war in Afghanistan that drags on and today is deadlier than ever. Then came our fiasco in Iraq. Don’t forget the anthrax letters and later the Washington, D.C., snipers and the wave of Wall Street scandals highlighted by Enron and WorldCom. Meanwhile, the living, breathing symbol of this economic sordidness, prisoner No. 61727-054, a.k.a. Bernie Madoff, rots away in a Butner, N.C., jail cell, doing 150 years for orchestrating the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of humanity. So to rethink what Ronald Reagan posed years ago, Are you better off today than you were at the beginning of the decade?- NO.

• Neglect. Our inward-looking culture didn’t heed the warning signs from around the world — and from within our own country — that Islamic terrorism was heading for our shores.
• Greed. Our absolute faith in the markets, fed by Wall Street, combined with the declawing of our regulators to undermine our financial system.
• Self-interest. The auto industry disintegrated while management and labor tangoed from one bad contract to the next, ignoring their customers and their competition, aided and abetted by their respective politicians.
• Deferral of responsibility. Our power grid needs an upgrade and our bridges are falling down because we have not mustered the political and popular willpower to fix them. New Orleans drowned because authorities failed to act before Katrina busted the inadequate levees.

On a positive note for the first time, a national health care bill actually has a chance to become law.

There is no guarantee that the next decade  will be any better than this one. It’s likely that China will continue to grow faster than the U.S., and we may continue to see our global dominance erode.

As my fortune cookie said today … “Attitude of Gratitude bring Opportunity” – Get ready America!

The Top 10 Everything of 2009